Slim`s Dominoes Fall Down On Willie

People

December 12, 1985

Amarillo Slim`s gambling skills are matched only by his oratory powers and he used both in whipping singer Willie Nelson in an expensive domino match in Las Vegas recently. Slim took the best-of-nine match, 5-2, at the Golden Nugget casino to win a Jeep, but he and Nelson also had a side bet that reportedly exceeded $100,000. Slim, whose real name is Thomas Preston, kept up a constant chatter throughout the two-hour match. ``If it wasn`t for me, this game would be boring,`` Slim said. ``Old women and babies play this game, you know.`` Asked why he didn`t talk more during the match, Nelson said, ``Slim`s talking enough for both of us.`` Preston said the key to the victory was outdrawing Nelson in the last three games. Nelson called Slim ``a great player. I knew he`d be tough.``

`EAR`: `I`VE HAD IT WITH GOSSIP`

Gossip columnists might as well have their offices in the bathroom, says Diana McLellan, the syndicated ``Ear`` who wrote about the gossipy side of Washington for 10 years. ``I`ve had it with gossip,`` she said Wednesday at a ``farewell to gossip`` luncheon where she was toasted by 18 other columnists from national newspapers and magazines. ``Gossiping was like flushing the john everyday. You write it, flush it down on paper and it`s gone the next day.`` McLellan is now at The Washingtonian magazine and enjoys the pace of a monthly publication. ``They say every gossip columnist goes nuts after five years.``

CUGAT READY TO WED 6TH TIME FOR A PRICE

Famed 1940s bandleader Xavier Cugat is ready to marry for the sixth time, but only if someone will pay $125,000 for the exclusive story and photo rights to the wedding, the Spanish national news agency Efe reported Wednesday in Barcelona. The 85-year-old bandleader`s representative offered the agency the exclusive story of Cugat`s wedding to his current companion, Mexican Yvonne Martinez, for 20 million pesetas, Efe said.

BEAUTIFUL LIPS

Actor Don Johnson, rock star Bruce Springsteen and tennis champ Boris Becker are on a tongue-in-cheek list of the world`s Most Beautiful Lips of 1985 that was released Wednesday. Johnson, who plays an undercover agent on Miami Vice has the ``most arresting`` lips, while Springsteen has the ``boss- est`` lips and surprise Wimbledon winner Becker`s kisser is the ``most upsetting,`` said a well-known balm maker in Oak Brook, Ill. This year`s other top lips were football rookie William ``Refrigerator`` Perry of the Chicago Bears, Cajun-Creole chef Paul Prudhomme of New Orleans; rock stars Madonna and Mick Jagger, actor Sylvester Stallone, actress Joan Collins, New York Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden, pilot Chuck Yeager and newswoman Maria Shriver.

DE LOREAN`S EX TO GET CUSTODY

John Z. De Lorean`s ex-wife won custody of the couple`s two children Wednesday, but the court ruling in Somerville, N.J., permitted the former automaker to keep the estimated $10 million in assets he took into the marriage. Superior Court Judge Michael Imbriani upheld a pre-nuptial agreement protecting De Lorean`s assets that Cristina Ferrare Thomopoulos had argued she signed under duress. However, he decided Thomopoulos, a TV talk show host, should have custody of the couple`s 14-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter, saying De Lorean travels too much and has too many legal troubles to devote enough time to the youngsters. Neither De Lorean, 60, nor Thomopoulos, 35, attended Wednesday`s court session, which ended their lengthy divorce trial. The children, Zachary and Kathryn, are to live with her in Los Angeles.